Actually the Indians have operated aircraft carriers (two of them) for well over 20-25 years.

They are upgrading now, going from pure jump jet VSTOL carriers to STOBAR carriers (Short Take Off Barrier Assisted Recovery). That means they will take off with the assistance of the ski jump and use trap wires to land.

They intend three modern carriers and they have a long coastline and adversaries in Pakistan and China...and especially China is not encroaching into the Indian Ocean area with their own navy and they are involved in a naval buildup to counter China’s buildup.

22 posted on 06/08/2012 12:26:21 PM PDT by Jeff Head
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